Scenes from a Different Romance
by Dylan S. Thompson
Summary: This is the story of Severus and Lily and a relationship that lasted for years. They loved, they hated, they feigned indifference, but, in the end, they couldn't help but save each other.
1. Prologue

A/N: Not many people (outside of my friends, who I forced to read it) seemed to like the first "Scenes from a Romance" (although it resulted in one of the more confusing reviews I've ever received), but I loved it. It remains one of my favorite works. So…here's another! This one is going to be a long, chaptered story, but it will follow the same basic style as my other 'Scenes' story.

Scenes from a Different Romance

Prologue

By Dylan S. Thompson

Some romances aren't approved of, aren't smiled upon, and implicitly aren't accepted. Some romances, unfortunately for the lucky souls who have to deal with this animosity as well as the hassles of a normal relationship, are downright hated. Oftentimes, the two parties involved don't realize it until they show up to dinner one day and are snubbed by those they once called friends. But sometimes, either because the lovers are especially intuitive or because the hatred of such a pairing is exceptionally assured, the two people in love realize what's going to come and decide to remove their affections from the public eye, hiding their love indefinitely.

The relationship of Lily Evans and Severus Snape was one such relationship. They were together for almost five years, on and off, starting out as two (relative) innocents and ending up a jaded, bitter man finding comfort in the familiar arms of a woman, bored and unfulfilled with her life apart from him. Through all of this, until her death, no one ever knew of their relationship.

It all started in fifth year…


	2. Enter Our Players

Scenes from a Different Romance

Chapter 1 - Enter Our Players

Lily watched from the castle, desperately trying to quell the sense of horror rising in her stomach and traveling upwards through her throat at seeing the dreadful humiliation Severus Snape was enduring at the hands of Potter and Black. She wanted to feel vindicated, wanted desperately to feel joy at him being treated thus, wanted to be able to enjoy his punishment for calling her that despicable word. But she couldn't.

All she could think, watching him being disgraced in front of those people, was 'That poor boy…"

She wasn't mad at him for what he'd said. She couldn't imagine the things she'd scream at people if she'd been going through what he had. And, after all, she had retaliated just as horribly, hissing at him, calling him his odious nickname. Her heart constricted, hearing the laughter of her fellow students even from 100 yards away, as Potter stripped Severus of his underwear.

The look of hate Severus shot Potter was one of death, and Lily couldn't find it in her to blame him. If Potter had…exposed her as he was doing Severus, she didn't know if she could truthfully claim not wanting to kill him.

Relief flooded through her as Remus Lupin finallywhispered something into Potter's ear which made him drop the inverted boy. It was a good gesture on Lupin's part, but it was too little too late in Lily's opinion. Potter left, laughing with Black and Pettigrew, Lupin casting remorseful glances over his shoulder. Severus lay on the ground, unmoving, covering himself, and eventually the spectators exited the area as well.

When the others had all left, Lily noticed Severus stir for the first time, and she made up her mind to go to him. Rushing out the door, but not running, Lily managed to reach Severus just as he was bending down to pick up his scattered books.

"Severus…" she said hesitantly, not wanting to startle him.

His head snapped around and he fixed a glare on her so hateful that tears came to Lily's eyes. "Come to laugh some more?" Severus spat, and then leaned back down to retrieve his book.

_He's a right hard bastard to feel sympathy for,_ Lily thought wryly as she looked on. She was about to open her mouth to speak again, maybe to apologize, but before she could he picked up his last book and turned around to appraise her.

She stared into his eyes, which were still blazing with anger and hurt, but remained silent, knowing that anything she said would be turned into some sort of insult by the boy in front of her. After almost a minute of tense silence, Severus snorted to himself and shook his head.

Surprised, Lily asked, "What's so funny?"

"I was just thinking that it had been a long time since I've had a genuine staring contest," he replied, peering up at the sky, with actual mirth in his voice.

Lily's eyes widened in shock. She'd expected…rage, maybe; yelling, probably; sulking, definitely, but never in all her imaginings had she expected joking from Severus Snape. Her shock must have been evident on her face, because when he looked back at her he grinned at her.

_I'm dreaming_, Lily thought,_ that's the only thing for it. I tripped on my way down here, knocked my head, and this is all a very weird dream. Snape doesn't joke, or grin, or laugh. He broods, and glares, and hisses. _

Lily didn't know what to say. She'd come here to comfort him, to calm him down, to let him know that she wasn't angry with him; but it seemed he needed none of these things.

"I…uh…had thought that you would be…angry or…um…something," Lily didn't really know what she meant or why she was talking, so she quickly clamped her mouth shut.

At her words Severus' eyes darkened, filling with hate and hurt once more, and he glared at the ground, "Oh, I'm still livid at those bastards, and I'm still going to fucking destroy them when I get the chance."

"Oh," Lily said in a small voice, quelling under the loathing in his voice.

Hearing the fear in her voice, Severus quickly returned his gaze to her own and softened the look in his eyes, "But that doesn't mean I'm going to be a jackass to you again."

Lily's eyes widened again, shocked at this semi-apology, and she opened her mouth to respond, but was cut off by Severus, who said, "Look, Evans, I want to apologize for what I said to you earlier, you know…"

"I know," Lily said, smiling in spite of herself. It was obvious that he wasn't practiced in apologizing.

"…right, so, anyway, I'm really sorry for what I called you. You were just trying to help me, and I had to go and shit all over you because I was embarrassed that I needed help at all and hurt and fucking apoplectically mad."

"It's alright," Lily comforted, reaching out and resting her hand on his forearm. Lily's heart clenched when even this small touch caused him to flinch slightly, but she refused to remove it and he relaxed after a second.

Severus looked downcast as he said, "I just wanted you to know that I don't really buy into all that shit. Pureblood Supremacy, blood traitors, muggle born and half-blood extermination; it's all the paranoid nonsense of a bunch of inbred retards. It's the kind of shit my father believes in, and if I ever end up like my father I'd want someone to kill me."

Lily bit her lip as she saw his cheeks redden when he realized how personal his last statement was, but she decided to cut him off before he could think too much about it and run away or something. "You should enlist Potter and Black for that job. I think it would be the highlight of their pathetic lives."

It was a risky comment, Lily knew, but she wasn't Gryffindor for nothing. At worst, he would get offended again and stalk off. At best, he would forget about his slip up about his father. After a few seconds of pregnant silence, Severus smiled and said, "I said kill, Evans, not torture."

Lily shrugged, inwardly thanking God that her risk had paid off, and said, "I'm sure they'd get to it…eventually."

Severus wordlessly jerked his head toward the castle and began to leisurely walk towards it, Lily immediately following him. Once Lily was at his side again, Severus said, "Be that as it may, I was thinking more of a quick, painless death. I think I'd have to go to Slytherin for that."

"Well, it's you're death," Lily said lightly, her heart, for some reason, sinking a bit as she and Severus reached the entrance to the castle. They passed through the gate and stood and faced each other when they reached the branching hallway. Gryffindor and Slytherin common rooms were in opposite directions. It was time for them to part, and Lily felt suddenly sad. This entire meeting had been so unexpected and intriguing that she didn't want it to be over.

Severus, though, didn't seem to have any such qualms. "I'll see you around, Evans," he said, flashing a quick smirk before brushing past her and striding off towards his common room.

Lily turned slightly, watching his retreating form, and said softly, "Yeah…later." The she shook her head, clearing it of all superfluous thought, and started to make her way to her own common room.

To Be Continued…


	3. A Breach of Etiquette

Scenes from a Different Romance

Chapter 2 – A Breach of Etiquette

Severus lay in bed, scowling, killing flies with his wand, wishing that they were his father. Suddenly, with a snarl, he jumped up from bed and started beating at his door wildly, yelling, "You fucking bastard! Sextus, I swear to all the Gods in the sky that if there's so much as a bruise on her when I get out that I'll turn your fucking bones to fire!"

Growling, knowing it was useless, he ripped himself away from the door and started pacing violently up and down the room. His father had always beaten his mother, it was a rule of life. Unfortunately for Sextus Snape, his son hated rules. When he was only ten years old Severus began to learn dark curses and using them on Sextus for the sole purpose of infuriating his father so much that Sextus would come after him instead of his mother. It used to work, but while Severus was at Hogwarts, Sextus had developed a taste for beating his wife again. Now, whenever he got the itch, Sextus simply locked Severus in his room with a powerful imprisonment charm.

Roaring, he leapt at the door again, screaming, "You're fucking pathetic! What kind of man beats on innocent fucking children and women? And I know what you did to Julia before the left! You sick fuck! You better not ever unlock this door, Sextus, because I'll fucking rip you apart with my bare hands!"

Severus let out a final, primal, desperate scream and then sunk to the ground with his back to the door, near tears. He felt so useless locked up like this, knowing that his mother was going through hell nearby and that there was nothing he could do about it. He would be let out eventually, but Severus could do nothing, despite his threats. His mother forbade any retribution on his part, and, despite his most fervent hatred of his father, he loved his mother more than anything in the world.

He let out a long, jagged sigh and stood up. His room was in pieces; he'd raged for hours before his brief repast of fly-killing in bed. His desk chair was broken, every mirror he owned had been punched through, the doors of his closet were ripped off the hinges, and his wardrobe had been toppled over. This had been a bad one.

"Fuck it," he said, shrugging. He'd repair it all later. He flung himself onto his bed, and lay, scowling, with his hands behind his head.

_If I'm in this state when Sextus lets me out I'll kill him, no matter what Mother wants, _he thought, taking a deep, steadying breath. He had to calm down, had to, and there was only one thing that always worked.

_Veritaserum, _he thought mechanically, _is the most powerful truth potion still in use today. In several ancient texts there is mention of a truth potion, used exclusively by Dark Lords, which was over one hundred fold more powerful than Veritaserum and lasted as long as the subject lived, but this potion, if it indeed did exist, has been lost forever. Veritaserum was invented over fifteen hundred years ago in the British Isles, some say by Merlin himself. The ingredients of this very difficult potion include…_

Slowly, ever so slowly, he felt his breathing return to normal and his skin stopped burning. By the time he had reeled off the last procedure of the instructions, he was certain that if his father opened the door Severus would be able to resist killing him. Sighing calmly, he rolled over onto his side and glanced at his clock, only to find that he had shattered it in his rage earlier. Chuckling, Severus sat up and picked up his wand. Twirling it through his fingers, Severus was about to repair his damage when he heard a tapping on his window. Startled, he glanced up and saw a large, brown barn owl sitting outside on the ledge.

Curious, he lifted himself up from bed to let the animal in. Not that he cared, but whomever owled him was committing a serious breach of conduct among Pureblood Society. It was proper etiquette to send any letters, no matter who they were for, to the Master of the house so he could inspect them first. But…Severus didn't care in the slightest. Pureblood Society could burn in hell.

Taking the rolled up parchment from the animal, he unrolled it and quickly checked who it was from. When he saw the signature he thought, _Well, the breach of etiquette makes sense now. _Smirking, imagining what his father's face would look like if Sextus knew Severus was receiving correspondence from a "mudblood", he made his way back to his bed, reclining on it as he read the letter.

_ Dear Severus,_

_I know this letter is probably a shock, but I need help and you're the only one I can turn to._

Severus' eyebrows shot up at that, wondering what the hell could possibly be the matter. Interested, he read on.

_James Potter has now asked me TEN times to visit him and I cannot come up with a nasty enough way to turn him down this time. I'm utterly out of replies, so I decided to turn to the master. Please, please, please, please help me teach this jackass some humility!_

_ Desperately,  
__ Lily Evans_

Severus, despite himself, burst out laughing as he read the letter, and, afterwards, felt better than he had in days. He had hardly set the letter down on his covers when a solution to both Lily's and his own problems came to him. Rushing to his desk he took out a quill, some ink, and a sheet of paper and began his reply to Lily.

_ Evans,_

_The solution to your problem is quite obvious (and, in fact, you would be doing be a great service for me as well): Simply tell our dear Potter that you cannot visit him because you are coming to visit me. That should be sufficiently nasty enough, my dear Lily, for what could possibly sting Potter more than losing his 'beloved' Lily to the Dark and Evil Snivellus? If you feel like doing me a great favor, then you would simply have to follow through on your claim and come visit me at our manor. For reasons that I am not comfortable going into at the moment, having you here for a week or two would put me forever in your debt. Please tell me your decision as soon as possible._

_ Snape_

Severus rolled the parchment up quickly and gave it to the owl, saying, "Take this directly back to Lily, and don't stop pecking her until she responds."

The owl flew off at top speed, and Severus watched it go with a smirk on his face. _Oh, the look on Sextus' face will be priceless…_


	4. Lily's Visit

A/N: Well, this story is officially non-canon. Oh well, the show must go on. And, by the by, this story happens to be a companion piece to my other fic, _Nightmares_. You don't have to read that to enjoy this, but it contains the seeds of at least four other fics that I intend to write (including this one), so you might want to.

Scenes from a Different Romance

Chapter 3 – Lily's Visit

Lily didn't think she'd ever seen Severus so smug or vindictive as he was as he introduced her to his father, Sextus Snape. "Sextus," said Severus, with the biggest shit-eating grin probably in the history of Ever, "Allow me to present my friend, Lily Evans."

Sextus surveyed Lily coolly, and Lily felt a stab of trepidation under his gaze. She tried to calm herself by remembering what Severus had told her earlier.

_You have nothing to worry about,_ he had said, smiling more reassuringly than Lily had thought possible for him. _Sextus clings to the same archaic code of ethics as all those other pureblood bastards. It's very medieval and too complex to be told in brief, but rest assured: as long as you're my guest you have to be treated cordially._

Sextus' cold voice brought her back to the present as he said, "So, Severus, this is the guest you invited to stay at our house…without consulting with me."

"Slipped my mind completely," answered Severus flippantly.

"Indeed," said Sextus, glaring at his son, who glared back with even more hatred. Lily watched the spectacle in shock, wondering how a father and a son could hate each other so much. It was Sextus who looked away first, tearing gaze back to Lily, who quickly wiped the look of shock from her face and tried to smile sweetly. "Still, I cannot blame you for inviting Ms. Evans. She is quite lovely."

Lily felt herself start to blush uncomfortably under Sextus' gaze, and she looked desperately at Severus. Severus, for his part, was looking suspiciously at his father, frowning. When he noticed Lily's look, he looked away from Sextus and smiled at Lily, regaining his normal, confident visage. Snaking his arm around her waist and drawing her closer, Severus looked defiantly up at Sextus and said simply, "I agree completely."

Sextus narrowed his eyes at the couple, and a look of disgust crept its way onto his face. The look disappeared as quickly as it had appeared, however, and he tried to cover his slip by asking, "So, Evans, you must be foreign, from Ireland by the looks of you."

"Um…no," stuttered Lily, confused. "Why do you say that?"

Sextus' eyes narrowed, and he glanced at his son, whose previous grin had come back with a vengeance. "Then who are your parents?" asked Sextus mildly, though Lily could tell there was barely controlled rage right beneath the surface. "I had thought that I knew the lineages of all the pureblood families of England, but one must have slipped by me."

"Oh…" said Lily, realization hitting her like a manticore. She cast dirty look at Severus, whose grin had widened to epic proportions, but he was too busy gloating to notice. "No, you didn't miss any. I'm not pureblood, I'm muggleborn."

Sextus instinctively took a step back in disgust at her statement. Realizing his error, however, he quickly recovered his composure and said, "Are you indeed? Well, I must say this is the first time a mud…muggleborns has every set foot in Snape Manor." Though his voice was civil, the look on his face told Lily exactly what he thought of her, and she felt the familiar fear creep back into her heart. Sextus ripped his eyes away from Lily, and, to her surprise, the look of disgust on his face only increased as he looked at his son. "Who ever would have thought it would come to this?" he asked rhetorically, his voice a hateful whisper, his eyes slicing into Severus like blades.

It all looked very painful to Lily. Severus, however, only grinned into his father's fury and crooned, "Only someone as brilliant as I, Sextus." Severus suddenly removed his arm from Lily's waist and bent down to pick up her bags. Straightening up, he addressed his father again, "Now, if you'll excuse us, I'll show Lily to her room." He favored his father with a pointed look and said, "I'm sure you want to run off and brag to your friends about your illustrious houseguest. Just think…you'll be the first kid on the block to have a _muggleborn _in your home."

Without waiting for a response and without a single glance backwards, he began crossed the room and began to ascend the main stairway, beckoning Lily to follow him. She chanced one last look at Sextus, who was apoplectic with fury, before scurrying after Severus. He was waiting for her on top of the staircase, just out of earshot of his father, and she attacked the instant she reached him. "What in the name of God have you gotten me into, Snape?" she hissed furiously. "I came here to spend some time with you, because I _thought _we had the beginnings of a friendship started, not to be killed by your father! I'm not going to be some pawn in some insane game of hate between you and him! And what the FUCK were you doing acting like we're dating?"

"Don't you trust me?" asked Snape with a smirk, still on a high from humiliating his father.

"Fuck no!" exclaimed Lily, fuming.

"Good," answered Severus, still smiling. "I've given you no reason to trust me."

Feeling the beginnings of a migraine coming on, Lily pinched the bridge of her nose and tried to calm herself down. "I swear to God, Snape," she said, frustrated but resigned, "I'm going to _kill_ you if you don't explain yourself."

"Alright, alright," Severus said placatingly, grasping her by the wrist and leading her into an empty guest room near them. They sat down on the unused bed, and Severus looked at her seriously for perhaps the first time since she'd arrived. "Look, I'll tell you what you want to know," he said, almost sounding scared, "but when I do you'll know more about my personal life than anyone…at all. So you have to promise me that you'll never tell _anyone_ what I'm about to tell you. Do you promise?"

"I promise," she said quickly, sincerely.

"Alright," said Severus, drawing in a breath. "There's no pretty way to put this, but my father beats my mother. A lot. It's really a miracle that she's still alive." Seeing Lily opening her mouth to say something, Severus held up his hand to stop her. "Just let me say what I'm going to say," he said, causing Lily to close her mouth. "For a couple of years, before I went to Hogwarts, I was able to goad him into beating me instead of her by learning Dark Arts curses and using them on him. That worked for awhile, but while I was at Hogwarts he started in on my mother again," here, Severus grimaced, "and he never really stopped. He's even worse to her than he used to be, actually, because he knows how much it hurts me. You see," he said, when he noticed Lily's confused expression, "he hates me. Not only for the attempted curses I still try to inflict upon him whenever possible, but also because I'm such an embarrassment to the family. Ugly, rude, hateful, uncouth, gauche, introverted, and, worst of all, I have the makings of a blood-traitor. Making me the ultimate black sheep of the pureblood world…except maybe for your friend, Sirius. When you sent your letter, I had been locked in my room for three days and he'd been torturing my mother for just as long. I saw a perfect opportunity, and I just had to take it. I'm sorry if you feel used, I really am, but I would still make the same choice if I had to do it over again. As long as you're here, Lily, Sextus won't dare to touch my mother because that would be breaching the code that controls his life. It makes no sense, I know, but I'll exploit it just the same. Once you're gone, Sextus will be furious with me, probably more so than he's ever been; so mad, hopefully, that he'll forget all about my mother and take it out on me. And I'm going to milk that for all it's worth, every single punch and curse that he has to offer. Maybe, if I'm really good, I can get two weeks of abuse from him."

Severus' eyes were locked with hers, and they were pleading. He was more vulnerable than she'd ever seen him, probably more vulnerable than anyone had ever seen him; she might have been imagining it, but she swore that there were unshed tears at the corners of his eyes. "That makes a month in total, Lily. I know it doesn't seem like a lot to you, but try to understand: I don't think my mother has gone a month without being beaten for almost five years. I'd do anything to give her that, Lily, and I'll do anything for you if you help me."

With those words he turned his gaze downward, staring at the floor, waiting for Lily to either reject him or become his partner in crime. Lily, for her part, felt sick to her stomach. The idea that a month off from being brutalized was a sort of…paradise for Severus' poor mother was horrible beyond anything Lily had ever heard. She wanted to march downstairs and castrate that miserable excuse of a wizard that dare call himself a husband. No, she wanted more. She wanted to kill him. No, she wanted to torture him, somehow make him feel every single twinge of pain he'd ever caused his wife and son. Her thoughts were so furious, so savage, that without realizing it, she let out a low, fierce growl.

Severus' head whipped up in surprise, and, seeing her staring out the door…growling…a relieved grin came to his face. "I take it you have no objection to helping me?"

Lily looked at him, her eyes furious, her expression diamond-hard. "None at all. I want to fucking destroy that bastard."

Severus nodded in approval and said, "Good. You really don't have to do much, except be you. The mere idea of a 'mudblood' being in his home, touching his things,spending time with his son, maybe _sleeping_ with his son," Severus said with a raised eyebrow, "is more than enough."

It was Lily's turn to grin at Severus. "Sleeping with his son?" she asked playfully.

"Paranoid delusions of an inbred pureblood, of course," he said dismissively, but with a roguish smirk,"but...a boy can dream, can't he?"

"That's quite an outlandish dream," she said, "considering this is only the second civil conversation we've ever had. But," she said, taking his hand into hers, "I suppose it's not altogether impossible that _someday_ I'll do more than barely tolerate your presence."

Severus tightened his fingers around hers and said, "What more could a boy hope for?"


End file.
